Briefly Noted

Portfolio Strategies
Maintaining the Flow: Will Foreign Stocks Help Your Retirement Portfolio?
Portfolio Strategies: Recent studies call into question the risk-reduction benefits of international diversification. Retirees want to know if foreign stocks can improve their portfolio performance enough to allow them to withdraw more each year.

Bonds
Foreign Interest: A Closer Look at the International Bond Markets
Bonds: Over the past few years, returns from all types of international bonds have ranged from good to spectacular. As always after good returns from a sector, the question arises: Is there still a case to be made for investing in international bonds?

Stock Strategies
To Find Small Caps, Don't Neglect the Large: Spin-offs for Fun and Profit
Stock Strategies: Spin-offs can offer unique investment opportunities in good markets and bad. However, not all spin-offs are created equal--you must do your homework to separate the attractive from the mediocre.

Portfolio Manager Interview
An Interview With Richard F. Aster Jr., Portfolio Manager, Meridian Growth Fund
Feature: A mid-cap fund that searches for growth stocks with reasonable valuations.

Stock Screens
Overseas Investing at Home: Screening for Reasonably Priced ADRs
AAII Stock Screens: One way to invest in individual international stocks is through American depositary receipts (ADRs). AAII's screen for ADRs looks for firms trading with a low PEG ratio that show strong recent price momentum.

Hot Links
Retirement Spending Calculators
Hot Links: Where can you turn for a quick estimate of how much of your retirement savings you can safely spend each year? A look at the investing Web sites with retirement spending calculators.

Industry Spotlight
Keep on Trucking: Sunlight or Headlights at the End of the Tunnel?
Industry Spotlight: Over the past year, trucking stocks have been discovered by investors. But skepticism abounds with concern that the industry will revert to its old status as a highly competitive, capital-intensive commodity service.

Departments
Briefly Noted
Current news items of interest to individual investors.

Departments
Letters to the Editor
Member questions and comments on recent AAII Journal articles.